Benefits

Ibuprofen has many benefits over the other painkillers that have been mentioned.

The benefits of ibuprofen are:

Decreases inflammation

Believed to slow down progression of Alzheimer’s

Non-addictive

More efficient than other NSAIDs

Relatively cheap

Ibuprofen can provide some relief for suffers of rheumatoid arthritis. Use of the drug can reduce some of the pain and swelling but it will not alter the course of the disease.

Ibuprofen has been found to slow down the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. Ibuprofen is thought to be able to reduce the amounts of beta-amyloid (a protein fragment whose accumulation is linked to the disease) that build–up in the brain. Whilst this information supports previous data which indicates that ibuprofen and other NSAIDs can slow down or prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s disease, scientists say it may also introduce a new way of thinking about how ibuprofen protects the brain. About 20 studies carried out on people have shown that those who took NSAIDs for various reasons had a much lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease than those people who did not take NSAIDs. Evidence has shown that inflammation in the brain, prompted by amyloid deposits, activates immune cells and elicits harmful substances that destroy nerve cells. Ibuprofen is thought to interrupt this pathway of events.

Ibuprofen is much more effective than aspirin. To achieve the same anti-inflammatory effect 4000mg of aspirin needs to be administered whilst only 2400mg must be used in the case of ibuprofen. This again shows that ibuprofen is more useful than other drugs, as because it is present at lower concentrations in the body the chance of unwanted side effects are much less.

Ibuprofen is not addictive and so will not cause problems with people becoming dependent on it, this can occur with other painkillers. It also means that people will not build up a tolerance to the drug: meaning that they will not need larger and larger quantities of the drug to induce the same pain releasing effects.

Ibuprofen is a relatively cheap drug and does not require a prescription and so is widely available. It is mild enough to not need a prescription but at the same time efficient in its action.